In Roob's Obs: Is Eagles free agent Jaelan Phillips really worth $20 or more?

In Roob's Obs: Is Eagles free agent Jaelan Phillips really worth $20 or more? originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Musings about Jaelan Phillips’ value, mulling whether Nick Sirianni will interfere with Sean Mannion and reflecting on the genius of Jim Johnson.

The offseason is about to explode into gear a week from Tuesday with the legal tampering period and it’s going to be a fascinating spring for the Eagles as Howie Roseman begins building the 2026 roster.

Here’s this week’s helping of Roob’s 10 Random Observations as we plow into Week 7 of the offseason.

1. Jaelan Phillips played well in 2025 after the Eagles acquired him. Did a lot of good things, made the players around him better, played hard, was happy to come up and stuff the run, had a couple sacks and decent pressures, good culture guy, liked and respected by his teammates and coaches. Solid guy. One thing he’s not is a $20 million player and nobody really knows yet what kind of offers he’s going to get, but the estimates we’re hearing are in the $20 million range and up – way too high for a player who is good but not great. I know edges are making a fortune these days, but after recording 15 ½ sacks his first two years Phillips has just 12 ½ the last three, which ranks 82^nd in the league. Part of the issue is this isn’t a strong free agency edge class. As the cap goes up, more teams are keeping their own good young players and fewer of them are reaching free agency. Do you want to pay Odafe Oweh, who had 7 ½ sacks last year? Do you want to pay Khalil Mack, who’s 35 and three years removed from his last big season? Do you want to pay Kiwty Paye, who has averaged six sacks in five seasons? Phillips is only 26 and a solid player, and that makes him a valuable free agent. I would love to see Phillips back here, especially after the Eagles traded a 3^rd-round pick for him. But I’d much rather see Howie Roseman take that $20 million per year and use to keep some of the homegrown talent he’s drafted. The Eagles have Jalyx Hunt and Nolan Smith as edge rushers and while you’d love to have a third guy in the mix, he’s not a guy the Eagles have to keep. Phillips had two sacks, 17 pressures and six quarterback hits in 417 defensive snaps after joining the Eagles. Do you want to pay $20 million a year for that kind of production? Part of the problem here is that Smith has underachieved as a 1^st-round pick and you’d feel a lot better moving on from Phillips if Smith was a double-digit sack guy. But he did have 10 ½ sacks including the postseason in 2024 and I think the Eagles’ best bet is to hope Smith can stay healthy and play like he did two years ago and Hunt can continue the progress he showed in 2025. If Phillips’ price drops below $15 million per year I’m in. More than that and I just don’t think it makes sense.

2. Stathead tracks catch percentage since 1978 – the percentage of targets a player catches. Of 41 WRs with at least 5,000 career receiving yards since then, DeVonta Smith’s 69.5 catch percentage is 4^th-highest, behind only Michael Thomas (77.6), Amon-Ra St. Brown (73.7) and Cooper Kupp (72.4). Of 16 WRs with 5,000 yards and a 13.0 per-catch average, Smith’s 69.5 is highest. 

3. One of Nick Sirianni’s most interesting answers during his long interview at the Jefferson Health Training Complex before heading to Indianapolis for the Combine had to do with exactly what his working relationship with Sean Mannion will look like. He’s promised the 33-year-old rookie play caller autonomy, and he knows he has to trust Mannion and let him do his job without interference. “I’m here to be a resource for (Mannion), but I know that the most important thing that I need to do is be the head football coach of the football team, not the offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. I need to be the head football coach in charge of everything.” In other words, he knows he has to stay out of Mannion’s way and let him coach the way he wants to coach while he manages all the macro stuff – culture, practice, communication with players, and so on. But can he do that? If things aren’t going well in a game or over a couple weeks, will he try to be the offensive coordinator and step on Mannion’s toes? He is an offensive coach by trade and he will have at least some say in the game plan, but will he overstep his bounds? You know there’ll be times he’ll be tempted, but the Eagles hired Mannion because they trust him to do this job. Now Sirianni has to just stay out of his way and let him do it.

4. The Eagles played 17 postseason games between 2000 and 2008 with Jim Johnson as their defensive coordinator. They allowed one or fewer passing touchdowns in 13 of those 17 games, they allowed one or fewer rushing TDs in 14 of those games and they allowed two or fewer total offensive TDs in 13 of those games. In all, they allowed 27 TDs in those 17 games, just 11 in nine home games. These are in the biggest games of the year against the best teams in the league. Jim was a flat-out defensive genius.

5. Ever wonder what Eagles quarterback has thrown the most pick-6’s? It’s not even close. Norm Snead only played 85 games in an Eagles uniform but had 14 interceptions returned for touchdowns. That’s more than the next-two Eagles QBs combined – King Hill threw six and Donovan McNabb five. Snead threw three pick-6’s in three different seasons as an Eagle – 1965, 1967 and 1969 (and 1973 with the Giants). The only other Eagle to throw three in a season was Ty Detmer in 1996. Brett Favre and Matt Stafford hold the NFL career record with 32 pick 6’s. Most in a season is Jameis Winston’s seven with the Bucs in 2019. Most career pass attempts with throwing a pick-6? Mitch Trubisky has thrown 1,933 passes without having one picked off and returned for a touchdown. Tom Brady holds the record for most passes in a season without a pick-6 with 733 in 2022. Kenny Pickett’s 800 passes without a pick-6 are 13^th-most all-time. The only quarterbacks in NFL history with two seasons with 600 or more passes and no pick-6’s? Brady in 2012 and 2022 and Carson Wentz in 2016 and 2019. And there you have everything you ever wondered about pick-6’s.

6. I’m not going to pretend to be a medical expert, but Cam Jurgens’ Instagram post about receiving stem-cell treatment and other therapies in South America is rather concerning. Jurgens had back surgery last offseason but his back clearly wasn’t right this past season and Jurgens never looked like the dominating player he was in 2024. Jurgens called the visit a “health reset week,” but, yikes, do you really go to Medellin, Columbia, for a “health reset” that’s not available in the U.S.? A little scary. Especially considering Jurgens has three years left on a four-year, $68 million contract that he just signed in April. Kind of makes re-signing Brett Toth a little bigger priority than we thought.

7. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week: Jalen Hurts has had three seasons with 350 or more pass attempts and six or fewer interceptions: 2022, 2024 and 2025 The only QB in history with more is Aaron Rodgers with six. The only other Eagles QBs with one such season are Donovan McNabb in 2002 and Michael Vick in 2010.

8. Just how good was Tank Bigsby this past year? His 5.9 average after joining the Eagles is 3^rd-highest by a running back in franchise history (minimum 50 attempts), behind Timmy Brown’s 6.8 in 1961 and Bosh Pritchard’s 6.0 in 1949. So highest in 64 years. Of Bigsby’s 58 carries as an Eagle, 13 of them – 22 percent – went for 10 yards or more and 50 – nearly half – went for at least five yards. Only four went for negative yards. I thought there were times early in the season when Saquon Barkley and the running game was still struggling where more Bigsby could have helped. Bigsby is under contract for 2026 and I wouldn’t mind seeing him get five or six carries a game. He really adds some juice to the offense and gives Barkley a chance to get a few plays off. It’s a heck of a 1-2 combo.

9. The Eagles are the only NFL team that’s drafted two Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks outside the first round. Only 15 QBs drafted in the second round or later have won Super Bowls. Nick Foles, a 3^rd-round pick in 2012, and Jalen Hurts, a 2^nd-round pick in 2020, make the Eagles the only team to draft two of them. Going deeper, only four other teams have drafted multiple quarterbacks in any round than won Super Bowls for the team that drafted them. In addition to the Eagles, it’s the Cowboys (Roger Staubach, Troy Aikman), Packers (Bart Starr, Aaron Rodgers), Giants (Phil Simms, Jeff Hostetler) and Steelers (Terry Bradshaw, Ben Roethlisberger). Teams that drafted two (or more) Super Bowl-winning QBs, one of whom won a Super Bowl for teams other than the one that drafted them are the Dolphins (Bob Griese, Joe Theismann), Patriots (Jim Plunkett, Tom Brady), Jets (Joe Namath, Sam Darnold), Chargers (Drew Brees, Eli Manning), 49ers (Earl Morrall, Joe Montana) and Buccaneers (Doug Williams, Steve Young, Trent Dilfer).

10A. If I’m Howie, I’m using a 6^th-round pick on Florida kicker Trey Smack. This kid is incredible, and you may have seen the video of him at the Combine booting a 60-yarder working with Eagles kicking coach Tyler Brown, but at Florida he not only made nine field goals of 50 yards or more he made 83 percent of his attempts over the last three seasons on 53-for-64. I just feel like Jake Elliott’s time here is up, and Smack has a better chance of helping the Eagles as a 6^th-round pick than some slappy guard or WR you might draft there. Smack’s long-distance kicking is especially attractive in this modern era of field goal kicking, where 55-yarders are layups. NFL kickers made 62 percent from 55 yards and out since 2024 but Elliott was 25 percent. From 50 and out the last two years, the NFL average was 69 percent, but Jake was 33 percent. He’s just not good enough anymore and I’m OK devoting some real assets on a replacement because that position is so critical.

10B. Also surprising that Roseman, a Florida alum, hasn’t drafted a Gator since defensive end Alex McCalister in the seventh round in 2016 and before that Jaylen Watkins in the fourth round in 2014 and Riley Cooper in the fifth round in 2010. 

10C. The last Florida player the Eagles drafted in the first three rounds was Lito Sheppard 26^th overall in 2002. The highest they’ve ever taken a Florida Gator is 14^th overall with quarterback John Reaves in 1972. Reaves went 0-7 as an Eagles starter as rookie with a 50.1 passer rating. The worst passer rating by an Eagles QB (minimum 200 attempts) since Reaves is Mike McMcMahon’s 55.2 in 2005.